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Monthly Archives: November 2016

I’m happy to share with all of you the last post of the Jóvenes AIL blog. The Jovenes AIL are the young scientists of the Iberian Association of Limnology. In order to disseminate our science, a series of posts written in a style for the general public will be posted. “The present as the key for the past” or the importance of the ecology for revealing the history of the Ebro Delta” is an extended abstract of my thesis work, and is available here. Enjoy!

Today I have the opportunity to participate in a very interesting workshop led by Dr. Marquita Qualls (@drqualls on twitter) about leadership. The workshop has been aimed to learn the EPIIC principles in leadership: Entrepreneur, Profesional adaptability, Intrapersonal awareness, Interpersonal communication and Cultural consciousness. Let me sum up each of the 5 concepts by asking questions that arose from myself after the workshop:

While entrepreneur consists in how well do you sell yourself in the market (when I say market I’m referring to academia, industry or management), profesional adaptability is about how you can adapt your technical/ soft aptitudes and skills to different jobs that requires different capabilities. Most of you would say: yes, of course I can do that, but this is really what I want to do? To shift from my comfort place will motivate myself? Or will demotivate due to new scenarios? Intrapersonal awareness is perhaps the most important concept of the EPIIC concept. It isn’t in the heart of the EPIIC because causality: who I am? who I want to be? A good exercise to start is through a SWOT analysis (Strenght, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats). Interpersonal communication: do I feel more confident by communicating myself via speaking or writing? How well do I feel with ambiguity? How can I handle with a defensive person? Finally, Cultural consciousness, which is not a trivial issue in our present-day global world: Do I feel confident to work with foreign people who have diverse cultures? Do I have enough open mind to receive well younger/older´ people feedbacks?

Having a positive attitude, not being competitive and being confortable with uncertainty are at least, to me, the ground levels to move forward in the science in general, and at the postdoc level in particular. Ah! And I think also that keep facing to new challenges every day will help to train yourself!